Saturday, July 21, 2007

Another Angle 21 - July - 2007

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



History was made on this day:
1962
- 160 civil right activists jailed after demonstration in Albany, Georgia.


NATIONAL:



Cindy McKinney & 2x Standard?
Republican Rep. Christopher Shays apologized Friday for a loud and angry altercation he had a day earlier with a Capitol Police officer, saying he behaved “in a way I know was not appropriate.”
Shays spokesman John Cardarelli said the incident took place at the West Front entrance to the Capitol during a rainstorm when the congressman was trying to locate a group of his Connecticut constituents who were coming for a Capitol tour.



Obama Says He Would Walk Picket Line
`We are facing a Washington that has thrown open its doors to the most anti-union, anti-worker forces we've seen in generations,'' Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery Saturday night. ``What we need to make real today is the idea that in this country we value the labor of every American.''



Police Beating Trial Draws to a Close
The four men are accused of violating the civil rights of Frank Jude Jr., 28, and his friend Lovell Harris, 34, during a housewarming party for one of the officers in October 2004.
Jude, who is biracial, and Harris, who is black, claim they heard racial slurs from the group of mostly white men while Jude was beaten.



Former Panamanian Leader Noriega May Face Extradition
President George H. W. Bush authorized U.S. forces to arrest Noriega during their Dec. 19, 1989 invasion of the Central American nation based on a pre-existing federal indictment on drug-related charges. Noriega, listed as 71 years old by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, initially took refuge in the Vatican's embassy, where he remained until surrendering on Jan. 3, 1990.




Federal Minimum Wage Rising This Week
Minimum wage workers will get an additional 70-cent boost each summer for the next two years, ending in 2009 at $7.25 an hour. That comes to just above $15,000 yearly before taxes for a 52-week work year.


Bush Executive Order: Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement
This latest executive order criminalizes the peace movement. It must be viewed in relation to various pieces of "anti-terrorist" legislation, the gamut of presidential and national security directives, etc., which are ultimately geared towards repealing constitutional government and installing martial law in the event of a "national emergency".



Texas to End High-School Exit Exams
The Texas legislature has voted to end one of the most controversial aspects of its school accountability system: exit-level exams that students must pass to get their high-school diplomas. The change in policy won't go into effect until 2011.



Teen Journalists React Strongly to Burial of N-Word
Brian Sprowl, 14, says the NAACP did the right thing, but, “To be perfectly honest, the N word will never go away,” he writes. “Racists will always use this word as a derogatory term towards blacks and blacks will always use this word as a form of bonding with each other.”



INTERNATIONAL:



Ethiopia pardons 38 jailed over political protest
The group includes the mayor-elect of Addis Ababa and the leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy party, which accused the government of stealing the vote. They were arrested in a clampdown that saw 193 civilians killed by police and tens of thousands of people detained.



Britain almost out of troops, memo reveals
In the memorandum to fellow defence leaders, the Chief of the General Staff (CGS) confessed that "we now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected". The "undermanned" Army now has all its units committed to either training for war in Iraq and Afghanistan, on leave or on operations.



IRAQ:



Secret Report: No Iraq Oil Deal by September
The report, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the issues the three sides are too far apart to agree on are the "role of foreign companies in the oil sector" and the division of the oil profits.
Iraq unions vow 'mutiny' over oil law
Hassan Jumaa, President of Iraqi Federation of Oil Union



Expert: Al-Qaida can't conquer Iraq
"It is highly improbable that al-Qaida could use Iraq as the kind of safe haven it enjoyed in Afghanistan," Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president in charge of foreign policy and defense studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, said in a recently released memo.



The fruits of escalation in Iraq.



OP-ED:



The Militarization and Annexation of North America
There may be a greater scheme for the planet ahead, but this article only focuses on what we know about and how it's unfolding so far. It has a name, in fact, several, but they all aim for the same thing - one nation, indivisible, where three sovereign ones once stood, headquartered in Washington.



The Invisible Government
In both Vietnam and Iraq, banned weapons were used against civilians as deliberate experiments. Agent Orange changed the genetic and environmental order in Vietnam. The military called this Operation Hades. When Congress found out, it was renamed the friendlier Operation Ranch Hand, and nothing change. That's pretty much how Congress has reacted to the war in Iraq. The Democrats have damned it, rebranded it, and extended it.



Cynthia McKinney on American Blackout, stolen elections, the Green Party
Cynthia McKinney talks about American Blackout, who really stole the 2000 and 2004 elections (it wasn't Nader) as well as her 2002 and 2006 congressional races. She thanks the Green Party for their efforts in Ohio 2004 recount attempt.



A Sacred Connection to the Sun
I believe in the sun. In the tangle of human failures of fear, greed and forgetfulness, the sun gives me clarity. When explorers first encountered my people, they called us heathens, sun worshippers. They didn't understand that the sun is a relative and illuminates our path on this earth.



ECONOMY:



AlterNet: Environment: Why Does Milk Cost More Than Gas?
The other day milk was selling in a New England supermarket at $4.79 a gallon. Down the street, regular gasoline was going for about $3.04 a gallon.
One of the factors driving up the cost of milk is the ethanol stampede. Ethanol, as we all have been taught to believe by now, will bring us "energy independence" and lessen global warming with no change in the way we live -- unless we happen to be a small child in a household with a limited budget.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



Australians wave goodbye to TV remote control
A new device that allows viewers to operate the on/off switch or change channels by simple hand gestures may make the remote control lost down the back of the sofa a thing of the past.



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Fitness Plan: Rest to Burn More Fat
Looking to burn fat through exercise? Resting during your workout may help, Japanese researchers report. Here's the fat-burning fitness plan they tested: Exercise for 30 minutes, take a 20 minute break, and finish with another 30 minutes of exercise.


FOOD&DRINK:



How to Pick the Perfect Peach
It's a classic problem in agriculture: how to produce fruits and vegetables that taste good, look good, and can survive the often grueling journey from a distant farm to your supermarket. Food writer Russ Parsons talks about whether there's any hope for folks seeking farm-fresh flavor.



PEACH SUNDAES WITH BOURBON-PECAN SAUCE
Very easy to prepare, wonderful taste.



ENTERTAINMENT:



The Summer-Jam Report: Fabolous and Ne-Yo's "Make Me Better"



Is Hot Ghetto Really Messin' It Up For Black Folks
Meet Bob Roberts. He lives in a gated community with manicured lawns, talks "good" English and was the first "black" admitted to the Glen Haven Country Club. He thinks that he is a living example of the American Dream until a case of mistaken identity lands him in the same cell with Tyrone "T-Boogie" Johnson...

For those who aren't down with Black Entertainment Television, the network's latest attempt to provide wholesome family entertainment is a reality show called Hot Ghetto Mess, which (so far) is scheduled to debut on July 25th.



'Hairspray' Get Praises for Civil Rights Plot
"Hairspray" is a wonderfully over-the-top fantasy about an overweight teenage girl in the early 1960s who strikes a blow for individuality while single-handedly integrating Baltimore and changing the course of pop music forever.
Will 'Hairspray' Stick? Is Jerry Springer a Dick?



'Petey' Greene Still Gets Laughs, Even In Death
Ralph "Petey" Greene was a radio broadcaster, television host and all-around funnyman. But Greene was also a civil rights activist and, arguably, one of the most original voices in radio during the 1960s and '70s.
The legend is the subject of the new film Talk to Me, starring actor Don Cheadle.




HUMOR?:




Boondocks